We first saw
it in Episode 10, "Lost Boys", when
Dexter followed Arthur Mitchell (the Trinity Killer) there.

Trinity sees
a family arrive, and takes the time to memorize the family names from the
decals on the back of their SUV.

Then he uses
the info to con a young boy into going with him, telling him that he's
a cop.

By the time
the kid figures out he's lying, it's too late. He chloroforms him and puts
him in the van.

Dexter, who
has been looking for Trinity, sees him kidnapping the boy, and tries to
stop him,
but is too late, and Arthur drives off with the boy.

Dexter realizes
that Lundy was wrong in naming him "Trinity" because he supposedly
killed three people in each of his killing cycles. In fact, he killed four
people. The cycle began with a child.

(The same pier
parking building was been used for a later scene in the same episode, when
Trinity meets with his daughter, Christine in a garage.)

We
see the same arcade and parking garage a second time, in Episode 11
("Hello, Dexter Morgan"), after Dexter gets a call from Arthur
and hears the sounds of the arcade in the background.

Assuming
that Arthur is about to steal another child, Dexter hurries to the arcade.

But
in fact, Arthur has deliberately lured him there. And when Dexter finally
leaves, Arthur follows him to his place of work (the police station) and
learns his true identity.

Q.
What is it actually in real life?

A. An arcade
and an adjacent parking garage.

Q.
Where can I find it in real life?

A. This is the
Fun Factory Arcade at the Redondo
Beach Pier.

The Pier can
be found at the far west end of Torrance Boulevard
(in Redondo Beach, CA,
of course).

Torrance Blvd
ends in a loop that passes the pier,
and as you enter that loop, you will see two entrances to the pier's parking
garage on your right (north) side. One entrance leads to the
roof of the parking structure while the other (lower) entrance leads to
an enclosed parking level at boardwalk level.

This is where
they filmed the parking lot scenes, on the lower level of this pier garage.

The arcade
itself is a bit trickier to find. Most of the pier is a horseshoe-shaped
structure out over the water. But the arcade isn't on the pier itself.
Instead, it's located on the boardwalk section, tucked away behind (north
of) the parking garage, on the northeast side of the pier complex. The
arcade's official address is 123 S. International Boardwalk.

From inside
the parking garage, just head for the north exit (opposite where you came
in), and once you step outside (past that fish mural on the side of a stairway),
just look to your left (west) and you'll see the arcade at ground level,
in a bright blue storefront.

[ Warning: this
parking garage charges an hourly fee. And to complicate matters,
they want you to pay it via special ATM-like machines placed around the
parking garage, rather than at the exit. You insert your parking
ticket (which another machine gives you when you enter the garage) and
it tells you how much money to deposit. You then use the ticket to exit
the garage. ]

[ The Redondo
Pier was a frequent filming location for another hit TV show: "The
O.C." If you're familiar with that popular show, then
you should know that two popular OC hangouts, the Pier
Diner and the Bait Shop were both
located here. ]

I
shot the photos of the pier (below) in December 2009.

Q.
How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. You
see that girl just to the right of Dexter, in the screencap below?

No,
she's not a stalker. That's "Dexter" fan Kerry Weiss,
who managed to land a job as an extra in episode 10, "Lost Boys".
(If you know who to look for, you can spot her several times in the
arcade scenes.)

Kerry,
a Long Beach resident, has tipped us to several filming locations over
the years, (including, in this season, the first
Trinity crime scene and Dexter's accident
scene). She let me know all about the Redondo arcade filming,
and even sent me the photos (below) that she shot during breaks in filming
at the pier.

Kerry
Weiss shot the photos below in 2009.

The
first photo below shows Trinity's van, parked in the Redondo Pier
garage.

The
next photo shows the names of the family, via decals on the back of the
family's SUV.

The
next photo shows the arcade itself, including the Galaga machine
that Dexter was standing at.

And
this last photo shows the spy game machine where Trinity talked the boy
into coming with him.